Three DOF Microrobotic platform based on capillary actuation.

Cyrille Lenders (1) , Pierre Lambert (1, 2) , Michaël Gauthier (2)

1 BEAMS - Service des Systèmes Bio-, électromécaniques.
2 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)

This paper presents a new microrobotic platform actuated by capillary effects, combining surface tension and pressure effects. The device has 6 degrees of freedom (dof) among which three are actuated: z axis translation having a stroke of a few hundreds of microns, and qx and qy tilt up to about 15◦. The platform is submerged in a liquid and placed on microbubbles whose shapes (e.g. height) are driven by fluidic parameters (pressure and volume). The modeling of this new type of compliant robot is described and compared to experimental measurements. This work paves the way for interesting actuation and robotic solution for submerged devices in the microscale.

Mots clés: Micro/Nano Robots; Manipulation and Compliant Assembly; Fluidic Actuators; Surface Tension.; Surface Tension

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Cyrille Lenders, Pierre Lambert, Michaël Gauthier. Three DOF Microrobotic platform based on capillary actuation.. IEEE Transactions on Robotics, 2012, 28 (5), pp.1157-1161. ⟨10.1109/TRO.2012.2199009⟩. ⟨hal-00798857⟩